Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting" (1974)

"Kung Fu Fighting" is a disco song written by Carl Douglas, published by Edition Carren / SMV Schacht Musikverlage GmbH & Co. KG and produced by Biddu. It was released as a single in 1974, at the cusp of a chopsocky film craze, and eventually rose to the top of the British and American charts, in addition to reaching number one on the Soul Singles chart. It received a Gold certification from the RIAA in 1974, won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Selling Single, and popularized disco music. It eventually went on to sell eleven million records worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. The song uses the quintessential Oriental riff, a short musical phrase that is used to signify Chinese culture. Kung Fu Fighting was rated number 100 in VH1's 100 Greatest one-hit wonders, and number 1 in the UK Channel 4's Top 10 One Hit Wonders list in 2000, the same channel's 50 Greatest One Hit Wonders poll in 2006 and Bring Back ... the one-hit Wonders, for which Carl Douglas performed the song in a live concert.

Norah Jones - "Don't Know Why" (2002)

Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies. The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Her subsequent studio albums, Feels Like Home, released in 2004, Not Too Late, released in 2007, the same year she made her film debut in My Blueberry Nights, and her 2009 release The Fall, all gained Platinum status after selling over a million copies and were generally well received by critics. Jones has won nine Grammy Awards and was Billboard magazine's 60th-best-selling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade. Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold over 37 million albums worldwide. Billboard magazine named her the top Jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time. "Don't Know Why" is a jazz song written by Jesse Harris and originally appears on his 1999 album, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos. It was the second single by Norah Jones from her breakthrough 2002 album Come Away with Me. Although Jones's version only peaked at number thirty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it was a critical success for her that helped established her as a respected new artist, and subsequently her album sold extremely well. The single went on to win three Grammy Awards in 2003 for "Record of the Year", "Song of the Year", and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance". It remains Jones's biggest hit single in the USA to date, and her only one to reach the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the single was a hit internationally where Top 10 in several countries. The song charted at 459 in Blender magazine's 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born.

Cher - "Believe" (1999)

"Believe" is a pop song by American singer-actress Cher. It was released in most countries at the end of 1998 by Warner Bros., as the first single from her twenty third album, Believe.


It became one of the best-selling singles of all time, and is one of the fewer than thirty all-time singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.   It won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording and was also nominated for Record of the Year.  "Believe" is noted for its deliberately bare-faced use of the Auto-Tune pitch-correction software on the singer's vocals to create a peculiar sound effect, sometimes referred to as the "Cher Effect".


The song debuted at #99 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for the week of December 19, 1998. It peaked at #1 for the week of March 13, 1999. It stayed at #1 for four weeks.


"Believe" reached #74 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90's."  The Xenomania Mix of the song was the most played version of the single on Australian radio.

Domenico Modugno - "Volare" (1958)

"Nel blu dipinto di blu" ("In the blue, painted blue"), popularly known as "Volare" (Italian for the infinitive form of the verb "to fly"), is Domenico Modugno's signature song. Modugno's recording became the first Grammy winner for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1958. It is the only foreign-language recording to achieve this honor. It spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100 in August and September 1958 and was Billboard's number-one single for the year. It is one of only three one-hit wonders to become single of the year in the history of the Hot 100 (followed by "Stranger on the Shore" by Acker Bilk in 1962 and "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter in 2006).


The song became widely known as "Volare", from its refrain, and reached the top of the charts all over the world through translations into various languages.


The song has been covered at least 100 times over the years. Versions were quickly recorded after the initial success - partly in English, partly in Italian - by The McGuire Sisters and Dean Martin. Bobby Rydell had a hit with his version, reaching #4 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1960 (this version was later played over the end credits of the 1986 movie Vamp). An up-tempo Spanish version (partly in Italian) was recorded by the Gipsy Kings in 1989, and an English/Spanish salsa version is also sung by Son Boricua of Jimmy Sabater and Jose Mangual Jr. in 2000.


DEAN MARTIN version:

GIPSY KINGS 1989 version:

Sarah Mclachlan - "I Will Remember You" (1995)

"I Will Remember You" is a song written by Sarah McLachlan, Séamus Egan and Dave Merenda. The song first appeared on the soundtrack to the movie "The Brothers McMullen" in 1995, and was featured on her remix album Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff. It became a hit when McLachlan released a live version of the song from her 1999 album Mirrorball placing at #14 in the US on July 20, 1999, after reaching the Top 40 on June 8. The song also earned McLachlan a Grammy Award in 1999.


The Rarities version of the song has three verses, the first of which is omitted during live performances (as heard on Mirrorball). This song was covered by Kenny Rogers on his 1999 album, "She Rides Wild Horses", sampled by Lil' Crazed for his song "I Will Remember You (Graduation Song)", and recorded by Séamus Egan and band Solas in 2000 on their album The Hour Before Dawn. Sarah McLachlan performed this song during an "in memoriam" slide show at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards, held on September 20, 2009.

Bobby McFerrin - "Don't Worry Be Happy" (1988)

"Don't Worry, Be Happy" is a song by musician Bobby McFerrin. Released in September 1988, it became the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. On the UK Singles Chart, the song reached number 2 during its fifth week on the chart. At the 1989 Grammy Awards, "Don't Worry Be Happy" won the awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The song's title is taken from a famous quote by Meher Baba. The original music video stars Robin Williams and Bill Irwin. The "instruments" in the a cappella song are entirely overdubbed voice parts and other sounds made by McFerrin, using no instruments at all. The music video for the song is considerably shorter than the album version. It is ranked #31 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.


The Indian mystic and sage Meher Baba (1894–1969) often used the expression "Don't worry, be happy" when cabling his followers in the West. However, Meher Baba communicated variations of the sentiment; fuller versions of the quote—such as, "Do your best. Then, don’t worry; be happy in My love. I will help you" -- also incorporate responsibility ("do your best...") alongside the detachment ("don't worry..."), as well as the master/disciple spiritual relationship ("I will help you").


Originally released in conjunction with the Tom Cruise film "Cocktail" in 1988, the song originally peaked at No. 88 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released the same year and peaked at No. 1 on September 24, 1988. The song also peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks chart and No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The song was also a hit in the United Kingdom and peaked at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart.

U2 - "Beautiful Day" (2000)

"Beautiful Day" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the first track from their 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, and it was released as the album's lead single. It was a commercial success, helping launch the album to multi-platinum status, and is one of U2's biggest hits to date. Like many tracks from All That You Can't Leave Behind, "Beautiful Day" harkens back to the group's past sound. The tone of The Edge's guitar was a subject of debate amongst the band members, as they disagreed on whether he should use a sound similar to that from their early career in the 1980s. Lead vocalist Bono explained that the upbeat track is about losing everything but still finding joy in what you have.


The song received positive reviews, and it became their fourth number-one single in the UK and their first number-one in the Netherlands. The song peaked at number 21 in the United States, the band's highest position since "Discothèque" in 1997. In 2001, the song won three Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The group has played "Beautiful Day" at every one of their concerts since the song's 2001 live debut on the Elevation Tour.


"Beautiful Day" was written in several stages, originating from a composition called "Always" (later released as a B-side) that the band created in a small room at Hanover Quay Studio. However, they were initially unimpressed with it, as guitarist The Edge said, "As a straight rock song, it was pretty ho-hum."[4] After lead vocalist Bono came up with the "beautiful day" lyric, the song went in a different direction. The Edge's backing vocals for the chorus were improvised one night with co-producer Daniel Lanois, an addition he called "the key" to the chorus and its new lyrics.


"Beautiful Day" is played at a tempo of 136 beats per minute in a 4/4 time signature. The song opens with a reverberating electric piano playing over a string synthesiser, introducing the chord progression of A–Bm7–D–G–D9–A. This progression continues throughout the verses and chorus, the changes not always one to a bar. After the opening line, "The heart is a bloom", the rhythm enters, comprising repeated eighth notes on bass guitar and a drum machine. In the first verse, Bono's vocals are in the front in the mix and their production is dry. At 0:29, a guitar arpeggio pattern by The Edge first appears, echoing across channels. The verses are relatively quiet until the chorus, when The Edge begins playing the song's guitar riff and Mullen's drums enter. During the chorus, Bono sings in a restrained manner, contrasting with The Edge's "loud, bellowing" background vocals, a sustained cry of "day".

Ella Fitzgerald - "A Tisket A Tasket" (1938)

A Tisket A Tasket is a nursery rhyme first recorded in America in the late nineteenth century. It was used as the basis for a very successful and highly regarded 1938 recording by Ella Fitzgerald. The words Tisket and Tasket do not appear in standard dictionaries, so were probably fabricated to suit the rhyme and metre.


The rhyme was first noted in the United States in 1879 as a children's rhyming game. It was sung while children danced in a circle. One of the number ran on the outside of the circle and dropped a handkerchief. The nearest child would then pick it up and chase the dropper. If caught the dropper was either kissed, joined the circle, or had to tell the name of their sweetheart. An early noted version had the lyrics:


A-tisket a-tasket
A green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to my love
And on the way I dropped it,
I dropped it,
I dropped it,
And on the way I dropped it.
A little boy he picked it up and put it in his pocket.


Ella Fitzgerald, in conjunction with Al Feldman, extended and embellished the rhyme into a jazz piece which was her breakthrough hit with the Chick Webb Orchestra in 1938. It has since become a jazz standard. A followup song written by Fitzgerald and Webb entitled I Found My Yellow Basket (1938) was less successful.